Needful Things
by obsessed1
Summary: Being unique isn't always a good thing. Shep Whump.
1. Chapter 1

Author: Obsessed1  
Character(s): John Sheppard and team.  
Genre(s): Stargate Atlantis: H/C -Angst  
Rating: T  
Warnings: Nothing too explicit.  
Summary: Being _Unique_ isn't always a good thing. Un-beta'd so all mistakes are mine.

"I don't _like_ this world," McKay groused, swirling the remnants of his drink, "_And_ I don't see why we have to spend the night here. They don't have anything to offer us!"

Ronon, leaning up against the bar, shot him an irritated look, "Sheppard seems to like this place."

He nodded in the Colonel's direction and McKay twisted on his stool to have a look. Oh _yes_! The Colonel! Of _course_ he was enjoying MX454. Ever since he'd activated that ancient device that was _just_ lying around on the bar, he'd gained the adulation of the town's folk. They'd never seen anything like it before and now they were sitting around him, offering him drinks and listening to his stories. Fêted like a God. And for what? Oh yes, because _he_ had the gene.

"I have the gene too you know," McKay provided.

"Shame you couldn't make that device work then."

McKay shot him an aggrieved look.

"Well you didn't."

God he'd tried, but the damn thing wouldn't glow for him. And what was it doing just lying there anyway? Of course Sheppard _had_ to find it and then just _had_ to activate it. He'd looked just as shocked when it had lit up between his fingers; the town's people had gaped and made little "ooooh" and "ahhhhh" noises. McKay had instantly snatched it from his hand, the device dulled and he was left wondering why on earth there was a piece of ancient technology on a planet consisting of farmers and wooden huts.

McKay continued to watch Sheppard. He didn't seem happy to be the focus of attention. He looked uncomfortable penned into the corner, back against the wall, surrounded at every side and his smile didn't reach his eyes.

One woman was all over him; stroking the side of his face, her hand lodged somewhere between the chair and his back. Sheppard reached up to her hand and without force removed it from his personal space and shuffled away. Unfortunately, he shuffled into the adoring arms of another woman and this time, from the look on his face, her hands were definitely not on his back.

Sheppard met his eyes and McKay deliberately ignored his pleading looks to go save him. It was his own fault after all.

"Maybe we should go and rescue the Colonel?" Teyla suggested, "He looks…..……anxious."

"No, _no_," McKay said a little too loudly, "He shouldn't have activated the device if he didn't want attention. No. Not going to help him."

Sheppard was attempting to stand up from the table but one man pulled him back down by his wrist.

"He's going to hit somebody," Ronon noted with a feral grin.

"McKay, jealousy is ungracious."

"Teyla…….Jealous? Me? Ha!" McKay tightened the grip on his glass, "I just think we're wasting our time here on _medieval_ world. I have important things to do."

"Of course you do," Teyla placated.

"I have ancient devices to fix! It's all good and well to be able to turn them on but who comes running to whom when they break?" he hooked a finger at his chest, "Oh look…..could it be me?"

"I _think_ you're jealous," Ronon smirked.

"Why would I want all of those strangers invading my personal space? That girl's practically sat on his lap!"

"Jealous."

"Ronon, I am _not_!"

"Yes you are," In the interim Sheppard seemed to have extracted himself from his group of admirers.

He leaned against the bar and gave a paranoid look over his shoulder; some of the townsfolk waved. He smiled crookedly and then sagged onto the stool next to McKay. He looked exhausted.

"My face hurts from smiling," he noted rubbing his jaw.

"You didn't seem to be complaining," Ronon smirked.

Sheppard glanced at the Satedan and shook his head, "I think I'm going to find our accommodation for the night."

"Not enjoying your new friends company huh?" McKay asked.

Sheppard gave him a pointed look.

"And now that you're bored with them you've come back over to us."

"I was _never_ interested," Sheppard stated, "They cornered _me_. And I'm not coming back to you. I'm going back to our room." He smiled and then amended it when Teyla gave him the 'look'.

"And you couldn't have excused yourself?"

"Rodney-"

Sheppard was interrupted by one of the town's people coming over and clapping him on the back. A drink was thrust into his hand and he held it stiffly, forcing a smile onto his face.

"Colonel, won't you stay a little longer?"

Sheppard placed the drink on the bar.

"Sorry. Got an early start and……."

"One more drink? We've never seen an _Ancient_ before."

McKay snorted loudly. Ancient? He was a bastardized cousin if anything.

"I _really_ couldn't," Sheppard looked to his team-mates, "Pretty tired."

"Oh I'm sure you could stay for one more-" McKay intervened.

Ronon elbowed him in the side and he promptly clamped his mouth shut.

"Like I said," Sheppard made a show of 'fake' yawning, "I'm _really_ tired."

The man's face grew dark. He obviously wasn't happy with Sheppard's reply and McKay felt unsettled by his change in demeanour. The open posture, the kind eyes, they vanished in a heartbeat and were replaced by something dark and disturbing. He couldn't put his finger on it.

"Very well." The man grabbed Sheppard's arm and squeezed it tightly, "If you wish to leave," he glowered.

Sheppard didn't say anything more and the man staggered back over to his friends. Disapproving looks were thrown his way and McKay smiled.

"You've offended you're new friends."

Sheppard waved a hand at him dismissively, "I don't know why they're so damn interested anyway."

"Neither do I," Mckay muttered. Okay, so maybe he was a _little_ jealous.

"I'm going to hit the hay-" and then to Teyla and Ronon's confused expressions, "-bed."

Teyla told him, "We will stay for a while longer."

Sheppard moved towards the door and he shook his head, "Don't be too late."

And then he was gone and McKay was smiling his little smile of victory, "I think I'm going to go talk to the towns people," and he hopped off the stool and headed over to Sheppard's former seat.

--

Sheppard was arching his back and relishing his new found freedom when he felt something sting him in the neck. He rubbed at the area with a grimace and continued across the square.

Being cornered all night had taken it out of him. He was suddenly very tired and wanted nothing more than to lie down for a while. And he'd lock the door. Perhaps barricade it with a chair.

"John?"

He stopped, tensed and turned, relieved to see Teyla rushing over to him and not one of his stalkers.

"What's up?"

"I just wanted to check that you were okay."

He smiled tightly and his jaw ached, "I'm fine."

"The town's people have obviously taken a shine to you."

"Yeah," he rubbed at his neck again, "Seems that way."

"I believe this could be advantageous. Perhaps tomorrow we could try the trade negotiations again. While we are on their good side."

He couldn't think of anything worse. Trade negotiations had never been his thing. He either offered too much or too little and they always ended up offending someone even if it hadn't been their intention. If he could help it, he'd send another team along in the morning to pick up where they'd left off. Of course, he didn't tell Teyla that.

"Sure. I'm going to head back. Watch your backs."

"Very well." She turned and walked back to the bar.

He waited until she was safely inside before moving off himself.

He'd only taken a few steps when he suddenly felt weird and off-keel. The cool air against his face was a welcome relief after the stifling atmosphere of the bar, but it did nothing to make him feel grounded to reality. He considered going back to the bar, but where they were staying wasn't too far away and the last thing he needed or wanted, was to be the centre of attention again. He'd had enough of that for a lifetime.

So he moved on, feeling felt hot and flushed; every step making the world lurch and turn. He'd only had one drink of water; any other beverage that had been pushed his way he had made a show of taking a sip and then covertly tipped it onto the floor by his feet.

There was no sense in getting drunk. These people had shown themselves to be hospitable and polite but it didn't mean he could let his guard down. He hoped his team-mates showed the same judgement. The last thing he needed in the morning was to have them, Ronon especially, nursing hangovers on the long walk back to the gate. Make that Rodney too. Rodney bitched the loudest when he wasn't feeling a hundred percent.

He staggered a little and managed to catch himself before he fell.

"Are you okay?"

A man grabbed him by his arm and hauled him into an upright position.

Sheppard didn't like the way the guy had trapped his arm between his, or just how close he was. His thigh holster was digging into the guy's leg. It was too conspicuous. Who knew what someone could perceive as a threat?

"M'fine," he stated backing away and raising his hands.

"You sure?"

"Just-" Sheppard moistened his lips, "I'm fine. Thanks for the help."

"You're that ancient guy aren't you?"

Sheppard sighed, "No."

"Yeah…I saw you in the bar…." And now the man was walking alongside him, a little too close, "Saw you light that device up."

"Look," Sheppard held his hands out and blinked when everything blurred a little, "Thank you for helping me up but…….._goodnight_."

He turned and kept walking. All the while feeling as though he was being watched in the darkness.

He managed to get back to their room, clipping his shoulder on the door frame as he entered. He didn't bother removing his gear or kicking off his boots; instead he went over to his bed and flopped backwards, placing his arm over his eyes to stop the room from spinning.

This whole planet was beginning to creep him out. He hadn't noticed it at first; but gut instinct was telling him that something was off. The people were too polite and too interested. Ordinarily, that wouldn't be a bad thing but it still didn't sit right with him.

He heard the door open and a latch fall into place.

"You're early," he said miserably into his arm, "Thought you were staying for another drink."

Somebody touched his arm.

"Just leave me a minute," he said waving a hand and letting it flop back onto the bed.

And then they were stripping him of his weapon.

"Hey!"

His team knew better than to do that, which was why he was starting to get the disturbing feeling that it wasn't them. In fact, they'd be talking more. McKay would be moaning and Teyla would be checking if he was okay. And Ronon, well Ronon would be doing that annoying thing where he poked him in the face until he jolted upright, confused and wide awake. It had been funny the first time. The fifth, not so much.

"What are yo-" the words wouldn't seem to form on his lips.

The hands that moved over him weren't careful or caring. They were hard and clumsy.

The room suddenly felt colder. Sheppard felt sick when they jostled him into a sitting position and had to do all he could not to throw up.

He opened his eyes.

"You……"

The man in front of him wasn't one of his friends. It was the man from earlier. The man who had obviously watched and followed him in the darkness. To what end? To rob him?

Instinct kicked in; he tried to get to his feet. His knees buckled beneath him and before he could react he was crushed into the ground and any rational thought rushed out. He tried to squirm, tried to reach for the knife in his belt but his fingers felt fat and numb.

"Who are-"

The words were cut off; his mouth was dry, he couldn't feel his lips.

The man crouched down and lifted his chin, "You don't know just how lucky a find you are, Colonel."

He couldn't feel anything. _Nothing_. Not when his head struck the ground with more force than necessary. Not when he was turned onto his back and patted down. Not _even_ when they grabbed his wrists and dragged him bodily from the room.


	2. Chapter 2

As McKay clomped up the stairs towards their room, Ronon flicked his arm.

"What?"

"Sheppard's probably sleeping."

"And?" McKay didn't attempt to lower his voice.

"And you are being very loud Rodney," Teyla admonished from behind him.

"I'm just _walking_ up the stairs."

Ronon shot him a look and McKay sighed.

When they reached the room, McKay noticed that the door was left ajar and he immediately got an unsettled feeling in his stomach. Sheppard, in any state, wouldn't have just left the door open.

"Something's wrong," McKay said quietly.

He could actually _feel_ Ronon and Teyla tensing beside him. Ronon already had his weapon out and Teyla was pushing the door open to reveal an empty room.

"Sheppard?" Ronon went in first, surveying the beds and then checking the adjoining washroom. He re-appeared and shrugged, "He's not here."

"Well he _was_ here," Mckay said indicating to the rustled sheets and his thigh holster lying on the floor.

"Maybe he went for a walk," Teyla suggested, but the expression on her face showed that she didn't believe that either.

None of them did. Sheppard didn't pull stunts like that.

"He wouldn't have left his gear," Ronon noted, walking over to the window and staring out into the night, "Something's wrong."

McKay crouched, something glistened in the light, and his stomach churned again.

"What is that?" Teyla asked.

"It looks like blood."

"That's it!" Ronon pushed his weapon into his holster and made a bee-line for the door.

"Where are you going?"

"Someone must know something."

And then he was gone and McKay and Teyla were taking off after him.

--

He hit the ground hard; falling limply like that, crushed the air from his lungs and jarred his knee. Sensation. It was returning slowly and Sheppard was beginning to wish he was still numb, because the headache that was making itself known and the sickness in his stomach seemed to point to one thing.

He'd been drugged.

He would have protested if he could find his voice. But instead, he lay on the floor and watched as people bustled around him, preparing some kind of contraption.

He tried to move. His hand twitched but it felt detached. He could hear the scrape of his boot against concrete as he drew his leg up. The dull thrum in his knee intensified. If he had to run……maybe it wasn't too bad. Maybe it was just bruised.

"Is this the one?"

Someone was speaking over him but he couldn't quite focus, couldn't see their face to burn it into his memory. If there was one thing hated, it was being helpless.

"Yeah."

"And you saw him? Activate the device that is?"

Sheppard tried to move, tried to make a sound and somebody grabbed him by the back of his tac vest and hauled him onto his side.

"I saw him," the man crouching beside him smiled, baring yellowed teeth.

"And you think I will simply take your word?"

The man let go and Sheppard toppled back onto his front, feeling saliva drip from his mouth, unable to move, unable to fight.

"Careful, careful!" the other man said.

"You want proof?"

Sheppard's hand was grabbed and he couldn't stop his captor planting his hand down onto something. The device from the bar. It hummed and glowed – Sheppard could almost feel his fingers. He could twitch them, maybe he could use this device for-

It was ripped away, "See? He's got the Ancestors blood."

"Wonderful. We'll need to take samples just to be sure," the man, his buyer perhaps, looked him over critically, "You've damaged him."

Sheppard thought he could taste blood.

"You can wipe that away."

"Still….he's not pristine……" The buyer ran his hands through his hair, down his jaw and took a long look into his eyes, "Good enough though. Good work."

And then they were moving away and he couldn't hear their voices as clearly.

"_Sheppard!"_

His radio! He heard it through the din in his head.

"_Sheppard!"_

_I'm here!_ He tried to move, tried to get his hand around to the front of his vest but he was frustratingly uncoordinated.

"I'm…" his voice still wouldn't work.

"_Are you there? Sheppard!?"_

It drew one of his captors attention and they rolled him onto his back like he was a sack of potatoes.

"Did I not tell you to be careful?"

The radio was pulled from his vest and then slammed into the floor next to his head. He felt shards of plastic hit his arm and any hope of getting help was firmly destroyed.

He started to cough. Whatever they'd given him seemed to have a paralytic effect and he couldn't quite clear his throat. Without care or particular attention somebody dug their boot into his side and kicked him back onto his front.

--

"He's not answering!" McKay informed the others in a panicked voice, "Oh god, something awful's happened. Hasn't it? Teyla? Ronon?"

He followed them down the stairs and to the innkeeper's desk where Ronon simultaneously pulled out his gun and rammed the man behind the desk into his chair, "Where is he?"

The man looked from each of them, a flash of something in his eyes.

"Where _is_ he?"

"I do not know what you're talking about…." The man stammered, hands pressed into the arm rest.

Teyla leaned in, "The man we arrived with. Colonel Sheppard. He has gone missing."

"I didn't see……."

McKay hung around at the back, feeling uncomfortable and useless. So much for welcoming town people. He looked to the floor again and could see the smear of rubber on the hard floor. Scuff marks…..blood. Somebody _had_ been dragged through here.

"Okay," the old man said, hands raised, "I saw him come back. He looked a little….unwell. I let him into the room and then I came straight back down."

"And then?" Ronon's voice was deep and gravely. Fuelled with anger. _Unmistakable_. McKay was momentarily relieved that he was a friend and not an enemy.

"I had to tend to a little……business. Nature," the man smiled embarrassedly.

Ronon let the man go, "If I find out that you're lying to us-"

"I would never-"

Ronon continued, "-I will come back _here_ and I will make you sorry."

"Maybe he went back to the bar?" McKay tried hopefully in an attempt to break the tension in the room.

"We just came from there," Ronon told him, "I knew this place felt off."

"Well what do we do?" McKay paced back and forth, "Do we go back and get reinforcements?"

"That'll take hours," Ronon said, "You can leave if you want but I'm going to find him."

"We don't know that anything's happened," McKay said. Of course. _Nothing_ had happened, they were over-reacting. "Maybe he's just gone walk about….you know what he's like. If he can't sleep he walks until he's tired and-"

Teyla placed her hand on his shoulder, "He would not leave his weapon and he would tell us first before leaving."

"And the blood," Ronon said, "Don't forget the blood."

He hadn't forgot the blood.

"His Subcutaneous transmitter!" McKay snapped his fingers and started back up the stairs before Ronon and Teyla could follow.

--

Sheppard couldn't seem to remember the bit in between lying on the floor unable to move and suddenly being upright.

He was in a bright room that hurt his eyes with rows of……pods. There were people behind them, frozen in perfect stillness. Not all of them looked human. None of them looked alive.

His container was small; barely enough room for him to move and his shoulders touched the sides. He stood there frozen in place.

His thoughts were cut off. The man from the street grabbed him by his chin and tilted his head up. He stared and smiled, eyes blood shot and his breath was foul. He couldn't help but notice his eyes; dark and swirling with menace. That sick feeling came back with a vengeance as the man started to wipe his face with a cloth.

"That's it. Clean him up."

The man from earlier came to stand in front of him. He was wearing a white robe; old and wrinkly; as if he should belong in one of the pods with the others. He clasped his hands together and bobbed up and down on the balls of his feet, much like Rodney did, when he was excited by a new find.

"You are a piece of history now Colonel. One of a kind."

Sheppard tried to pull back, spit; but his mouth was dry and he was stuck. Whatever they had given him was dulling everything.

"Wh-"

"Why?" the man let go and Sheppard's head dropped.

Sheppard watched the man out of the corner of his eye, pacing back and forth.

"We have been collecting for many cycles, but we have never found a specimen as interesting as yourself." He stepped forward and patted his chest, "Strong, pleasing to the eye and you have the ancestors blood. You'll make my customers happy."

Sheppard didn't know what that meant exactly. He was having a hard time thinking linearly let alone working out what this crazy man was talking about.

His buyer stared for a second and snapped his fingers at his friend, "His hair…..it is-"

Suddenly his head was being tilted up and the friend was pushing his hands through his hair and attempting to tidy it up. If he could make his hair stay down then Sheppard would volunteer to stay in the pod forever – knowing that was an impossibility however, he vowed to do these men serious damage when he did get out. Nobody touched his hair.

"Ah, that will have to do."

"_Very_ happy," the man finished before disappearing from his view.

--

"I've found him!" McKay announced as he ran down the stairs of the Inn.

Both Ronon and Teyla waited for him to continue.

"Picked up an energy source on the edge of town……and that," he pointed to a blinking dot, "-is Sheppard."

"The one you wanted to investigate tomorrow morning?" Ronon asked, an air of impatience surrounding him.

"Yes, _yes_ the one that Sheppard told me I couldn't have a look at until we got permission off the town's people……well he's there!" And if he'd gone for a poke around on his own, he'd kill him.

"What are we waiting for?" Ronon snapped.

Teyla was already out the door and McKay followed, taking their six, "Shouldn't we…..you know….get help?"

"For all we know everyone's in on this," Ronon said, storming across the square.

McKay caught sight of a few people hanging back in the shadows, eyes glistening like cats. Who did that? He thought. Who stood around in the dead of night just staring at people like that?

Ronon had sped ahead and he quickened his pace to catch up and continue their conversation.

"That's my point! We don't know what _this_ is! We could be walking into a trap!"

"At least we know we're walking into one."

"Ronon! A trap is still a trap and I don't want to end up like Sheppard………"

"Sheppard's not dead!" Ronon told him, turning on his heel and burning a vitriolic look into him.

"Well no……I wasn't saying he was dead……but he could be a prisoner…..he could be getting tortured or…..i just think we should be a little more cautious."

Teyla hadn't spoken, but the look she gave him told her that Ronon wasn't going to listen.

They didn't need words these days. Somewhere along the line it was as if their thoughts had become synchronous. They knew what the other was thinking without question, they gravitated to the same places, formulated the same plans and from one word, _one_ line over a comm, they would know what was being said. Even if it wasn't really being said.

Teyla's look said so many things.

But most of all, it said that he had to trust Ronon.

--

The chamber had been sealed shut; a force field which glowed and rippled with his every breath had trapped him. He hadn't noticed it at first, but it was getting difficult to breathe. It was if the air was slowly being sucked out.

And it was cold too. His flesh was goose bumped and even if he couldn't move, he was vibrating; mentally shivering. Or maybe that was the anger. He _was_ pretty angry.

He couldn't speak either; not much anyway.

He could just make out the other pods through the force field. He could see four opposite him; and there were probably others out of sight too. There were people in all of them. Frozen; _lifeless_. The first pod contained a woman with shocking red hair, the second was an old man with blue skin, the third was some kind of alien with tentacles for fingers and the fourth was a child; clutching a teddy bear and staring straight at him.

If he had to stare at those four dead sets of eyes for the rest of his life then he wanted out now. It was downright creepy.

Most noticeably, none of them were the same. They were all different; _unique_.

His role was becoming clearer.

--

They had to leave town and traverse a slippery hill to get to the source of the energy spike. The facility was smaller than McKay had initially anticipated – but whatever it was, was drawing a lot of power. It was circular, with only one door in. It stood out against the sky-line, a menace on the horizon and not in keeping with the town at all. It was if it had just landed here one day. Dropped onto the landscape.

It wasn't guarded either and that had McKay disquietly nervous. Nothing they _ever_ did was that easy.

"Too easy," Ronon said, testing the door with his palm.

"I tend to agree," Teyla said, scanning the scenery around them for anything untoward, "I do not have a good feeling about this place."

"Maybe it isn't an evil facility like we first thought," McKay said in a hopeful voice.

Ronon laughed and patted him on the back a little too hard, "Good one McKay."

"Fine…well open the door then. Let's go in and walk straight into a trap."

"You got a better idea?"

"Well……we could………..there's the possibility that…" he looked down at the scanner and then back up at the building. He wasn't used to not having an answer. Usually Sheppard called the shots and then he would fix his mistakes as they went along, "…...on this occasion……_no_."

"You can't think of a better idea?"

McKay shook his head. He couldn't.

"Then we go in," Ronon went to kick the door.

McKay shouted "_Wait_!"

"What is it?" Teyla asked.

"Life signs heading our way."

"How many?"

"Two, maybe three," McKay pointed in the direction they had come, "That way."

"Take cover," Ronon told them, assuming command as was often the case when Sheppard wasn't around.

They parked behind a bush and kept low, watching as a few of the town's people emerged from the tree-line, moving fluidly across the ground as if they were gliding. Ronon pulled McKay lower when one of them looked in their direction.

"I'm getting a bad feeling about this place," McKay whispered.

Ronon nodded for him to move. They'd entered the building.


	3. Chapter 3

--

He'd taken to breathing in short, shallow breaths because that was all he could manage. The air was too thin to take luxurious long ones. All he knew was that he had to hold on until his team could figure out where he was.

They would. He didn't doubt that. He'd drilled the line 'leave no man behind' into them often enough.

"So this is the new one."

He heard the voice before he saw the owner and was suddenly being stared at by four people and the man he had decided to call the 'Curator'.

"That he is. We just purchased him." The curator gave Sheppard a sharp smile and then pointed to a little placard at floor level, "Lt. Colonel John Sheppard. He is an ancestor of the ancients."

One of the women made a cooing noise and clapped her freakishly large hands, "Really?"

Why wasn't she in a pod?

"Proof?" one of them asked.

"We have verified his heritage." The Curator said, "As you can see, he is an excellent breed. Strong, healthy…._unique_. We're thinking of adding a facility for him to activate devices. We might open this area up," he pointed to the force field, " and make him a little more interactive."

_Interactive_? What the hell?

"Really?" the woman came in close and stared at him for what felt like an eternity. Her eyes, they too were jet black. She placed her hand up onto the force field and continued to look at him.

"Interesting…."

Sheppard had had enough. To hell with his oxygen, he shouted at the top of his lungs and finally found his voice, "Get me out of here you son of a bitch!"

The Curator looked embarrassed and steered the woman away. The man who had accompanied her and his friends just peered in and watched as Sheppard had his nervous breakdown. Sheppard had been watched throughout his life; by his father, his superiors, his peers, the SGC. They'd analysed and ordered and speculated. They'd been waiting for him to screw up. And now he was being monitored again. Only this time he couldn't hide or put on a mask.

"What is that awful noise he's making?" the woman asked, covering her ears with her hands, long fingers reaching up to dig into her hair.

"Like I said, he is very new. It takes time to adjust. In a while, his air saturation levels should have dropped and he will be frozen. Death should come soon after that."

Death? _Death_?

"Get me the hell out of here!"

He would have hammered on the force field if he'd been able to move but it seemed he was limited to shouting and wiggling his pinkie finger.

"Yes well……..he will be popular…when he's quiet," the woman gave him a dark look, twisting her lips to reveal sharp yellow teeth and then disappeared around the corner.

He could still hear the Curator, "He is the only live one we have. _Brand_ new."

As he stood there, trying to control his breathing, he had two thoughts; one, was that he always knew that his ATA gene was going to be more trouble than it was worth and two, that Rodney would absolutely hate that he was being considered as 'art' and 'unique.'

It almost made it bearable. _Almost_.

And then he started shouting again.

--

"Are we sure this is a good idea?" McKay asked as they were creeping around the facility. He wasn't cut out for this. Why he thought putting on a tactical vest and clipping on a sidearm made him capable of this, was a mystery. He followed Teyla closely; hoping some of her bravery, some of her strength might actually rub off on him.

"We're getting Sheppard then we're leaving," Ronon said, "Be quiet."

McKay kept his mouth shut and followed them down the hallways; gun clasped in his right hand and a scanner in the other. The inside of the building was all stark white and bright lighting. In one word, it was sterile. If he concentrated, he could smell the faint odour of bleach and disinfectant.

Only two places smelled similar; hospitals and morgues.

Ronon had ducked through an open door, they mirrored him and what they saw……._well_, creepy wasn't the word. The walls were lined with pods and in each one there was somebody trapped behind a glowing force field.

"What is this place?" Teyla asked, her voice wavering a little in that way it did when she was upset.

"Another VR world?" Ronon asked.

McKay approached one of the pods and leaned against it, trying to get a better look at the person inside. They…_it_……didn't look human.

"Well, I guess we can safely say this is where the power source was originating from," he poked at the force field and didn't receive a shock, "And I don't think it's VR. This woman looks dead."

"I have never seen……oh my-" Teyla had gone completely still and McKay joined her, unprepared for what he was about to look at.

Behind the glass there had once been a person, but the skin had been stripped from the bone and their internal organs were displayed for all to see. The bottom of the pod was discoloured with red blobs and white fatty deposits. Teyla had covered her mouth with her sleeve and it was an often unseen side of her vulnerability.

"That is disgusting," McKay uttered, taking an exaggerated step back. And then he panicked, because what if this was Sheppard?

Teyla seemed to read his thoughts, "It is not the Colonel."

He couldn't help but look at the stripped corpse; feeling sick and weak.

"Well _where_ is he?"

"We'll find him," Ronon said, already moving off to the next chamber.

There were more bodies here, different species, some they had met before, others they would probably come across at some stage. There were small placards on each pod, stating their origin and their name.

"It is some kind of…… _gallery_," Teyla said, "These people-" she pointed to a case, "They were the Lunayans. We once traded with them many moons back; they were wiped out by the wraith."

"I guess these people wanted a little souvenir," Ronon told her.

"I am most uncomfortable here," Teyla admitted as she walked along the line, trailing her hand from force field to force field, "And these people deserve a better resting place."

Ronon moved in tune to her, "If they've hurt Sheppard-"

"Why would Sheppard even be here?" McKay asked, interpreting his scan results.

"I suspect John's handling of that device in the bar has caused him to gain unwanted attention."

"You think the town's people are in on it?"

"I believe somebody has been informed of his abilities, Rodney."

"And you think they wanted to put him in here because of his gene?"

"Yes Ronon. To an outsider, he must seem quite remarkable."

"It's not magic," McKay told her, "I mean it is….but…." he tailed off because he was starting to sound jealous again. "We need to find-" McKay stopped dead and saw him then.

"John!" Teyla called out.

They all crowded around the pod to see Sheppard standing upright, eyes closed; looking almost peaceful.

Ronon started hammering at the force field, but it did nothing other than create a mesmerizing ripple effect.

"That's not going to work," McKay told him, staring at Sheppard through the field.

Ronon continued to pound on it until he shouted, "Open it McKay!"

McKay looked at the panel next to the door, but there was nothing to prise open, no wires or crystals to twist or re-arrange. In fact, from here there was nothing he could do.

"Is he alive?" Ronon asked, face pressed up to the force field, "Sheppard! Wake up! Sheppard!"

"He is still breathing," Teyla told him, "I can see his chest moving."

"Sheppard!" Ronon tried again, but Teyla held onto his arm and said, "We must be quiet. I believe they were your words."

Ronon conceded and dropped his hands to his sides.

"I can't do anything from here," McKay said, scanning over the pod.

"That's the second time you haven't been able to anything."

McKay ignored Ronon, "I need to find the main power source. I might be able to disconnect him from there."

"And where's that?" Ronon was worse than Sheppard.

"I don't know. I've only just got here."

"_Find_ out." Sheppard again. They were definitely spending too much time together.

"Oh yes," McKay made a show of waving his hands around and acting as if he'd had an idea, "Of course, in all but _three_ seconds of me being here I've figured it out _and_ I've solved the answer to the universe _and_ the cure for cancer…"

Ronon had stepped into his personal space and was glowering at him. This place had them all acting crazy. When they'd arrived this morning, the people had seemed perfectly normal, now as every hour went by this place was getting more and more messed up.

"_McKay_….."

"Ronon," McKay looked to Sheppard and sighed, "_Fine_……I'll-"

He was interrupted by an old man with ashen hair and a long white robe entering the chamber with two other men. They all froze in place.

"It is the Ancestors friends!" one of the men shouted.

The man in the white robe smiled, bearing sharp teeth and with a flick of his hand, the others were moving towards them.

"I don't think so," Ronon said, holding his gun up.

"We have come for our friend," Teyla informed them, "We mean you no harm."

"I am afraid that is impossible," the robed man told them, "He is now part of a very exclusive collection and-" he paused and seemed to remember something, "You are an Athosian _yes_?"

Teyla had unlatched the safety on her P90 and was looking more than a little uncomfortable. Sheppard wasn't the only one who was the centre of attention today.

"What do you know of my people?"

The man advanced and Teyla grit her teeth, "I know much about them." He looked to Ronon, "And you-"

"He's Satedan," one of his cronies told him.

"If you know anything about my people," Ronon said, "You should know I'm going to kill you."

"Ah," the robed man looked pleased, "Yes……I don't believe we have a Satedan and the last Athosian we put into the collection has not preserved all that well. Yes, you will do nicely."

McKay was beginning to panic; but then, "Hey?"

The robed man looked him up and down and dismissed him with flick of his wrist, "You are…….." McKay waited, "Very bland, _plain _even……you would not attract much interest I'm afraid."

McKay turned to Sheppard's pod and gave him a death stare, "I bet you're loving this aren't you?"

"You are free to leave but-"

"But what?" McKay took a step forward in the hope that Teyla and Ronon could do something with the distraction he was presenting, "I am a genius. There aren't many where I'm from I'll tell you that."

"Rodney," Teyla warned him. She sounded different. Tired.

"You should be begging me to be in your collection; this guy-" and he pointed at Sheppard, "-he's not going to preserve well. Those good looks, they'll fade but my brilliance-"

He heard Ronon and Teyla's weapons hit the floor and he turned, "Why are you-"

They were both swaying dizzily, fighting to stand upright and then, they were suddenly collapsing to the floor in a heap, darts sticking out of the sides of their necks.

"What have you done?" he asked, feeling very alone and wishing Sheppard was just wake up and burst through that force-field.

McKay didn't know what to do. He stood there for a second, reading Teyla's look that told him to run, that beneath that told him to go fix the problem, and then he did. Run that is. As fast as he could, firing a few badly aimed bullets over his shoulder as he headed towards the source of the power.

He found a stairwell that he hadn't seen before and clomped down it as quickly as he could.


	4. Chapter 4

--

McKay wasn't built for this; sneaking around with a gun and trying to be all stealthy. That was Sheppard's job; only Sheppard was impersonating one of the dummies at Madame Tussauds right now and no doubt Teyla and Ronon would be joining him too.

Because they were _unique_.

How could he be over-looked? _Bland_? Wouldn't attract much interest. He was a genius! Would Albert Einstein have been uninteresting? Would Tessler be boring? Philistines the lot of them. They wouldn't know interesting if it came up and bit them on the ass. That's why they'd chosen Sheppard. They'd been impressed by his charming façade and a bit of magic. Sheppard was no where near as _interesting_ as McKay was. He was………he was getting side-tracked.

No, he had to find the main computer system for this place. He'd noted a symbol above Sheppard's pod; so at least he could identify him.

All he needed to do was disrupt the power flow to his force field and then he could argue with Sheppard in person about _uniqueness_.

--

Being unable to move was disturbing. Teyla couldn't speak, nor could she move. They'd taken her weapons, felt the injustice of unfamiliar hands brushing over her body, under her top and the inside of her leg to remove her hidden knife. Ronon had been able to see her violated; and in his eyes she had seen vengeance.

She knew he was nearby.

She had always wondered how her people would be immortalised. She often feared that the wraith would wipe them out; no-one to remember, to tell the stories, to pass down generations worth of knowledge and skill.

If she was here forever, a fact she knew to be untrue, she wondered if she would be the last of her kind.

--

McKay finally found the power source that he was looking for and poked his head into the computer room before entering. Knowing his luck, somebody would be hiding and waiting to knock him over the head. He made sure he circled the room twice, scanning methodically as he had seen Sheppard and Ronon do before settling into one of the chairs by a work station. He started looking for a connection for his laptop and scanner, ripping open one of the consoles and tearing at wires.

"This had better work," he mumbled as he made the connection, "Because I'm not going home and explaining this to Samantha."

Nothing happened.

"Work you piece of antiquarian rubbish…."

He tried the connections again, wiggling them into his laptop port and then prising open another panel to see if he could find a better link. His fingers were already covered in muck and dust.

This was going to take a while. He doubted his team had that long.

--

Ronon had never been so angry in all his life. They'd had to sedate him twice because the dosage they had given him hadn't kept him pliant enough. They'd removed anything of worth from his body; taken his gun, his last link to his home world.

When he got out, he would make sure he retrieved it and that these people paid.

--

He'd been there for an hour, intermittently looking back over his shoulder in case anyone was sneaking up on him or hiding in the shadows as they had been in the village, when he finally found what he was looking for.

"Bingo……" he said and then promptly looked behind him, because who knew how far his voice could echo down those halls and alert somebody to his whereabouts. They probably weren't looking for him anyway, considering he was completely and utterly _disinteresting_. Idiots!

Schematics came up on his laptop screen in a formation like that of the Matrix. He picked his way through them, searching for the corresponding pod number that Sheppard was in. He'd have to do the same for Teyla and Ronon but he didn't know where they were and he wasn't sure he could overload the system enough to disrupt all of the pods. No, he'd have to get Sheppard out and then when he had back-up he could search for Teyla and Ronon.

"Ah," he said finally finding Sheppard's, "Got you."

He disrupted the power and watched as the force field's energy drained away.

--

He'd thought he was dead. Everything had greyed out and his head had felt like it was going to explode, but then he was suddenly awake and gasping for breath on the floor of the chamber. The oxygen he had needed before was choking him as he drew in slow, burning breaths.

He tried to push himself up into a standing position and found his limbs weak and shaky. He had to move. Get up. He was too exposed and if the creepy curator found him now he'd put him straight back into the deep freeze. He didn't know why or how or what had happened but he wasn't going to look a gift horse. He had to take his chance and get out.

When he could _breathe_ that was.

He settled for lying on his back and breathing as slow and as quietly as he could. He wanted to cough but he knew it would just echo above him.

He reached for his earpiece and remembered it was gone and decided to take a quick inventory as the white spots disappeared from his vision and his limbs tingled back to life.

They'd taken his 9.mil and left his P90 back in his room. They'd discovered the knife in his rear sheath and the one in his boot. Similarly, the pistol in his calf holster was also missing. Weirdly, they'd left his tac vest on him and overlooked the fact that he had a wad of C4 in his pocket with detonator blast caps. They'd probably never seen them before. So no weapons to do damage, but he could blow the crap out of something.

That sounded _really_ good.

He managed to get up onto his knees and reached out for something to steady himself on as he got up into a standing position. He braced himself on the wall, waiting for the white striations across his vision to clear. He couldn't help but look at the unseeing eyes that were fixed on him. At some point, these people had been in the same position, only luck hadn't been on their side. Their oxygen supply had run out and they had died.

"Sorry," he muttered. He didn't know why he felt so guilty. It wasn't as if he could have helped them.

He felt a little queasy as he started edging forwards. He poked his head around into a conjoining chamber and felt like he was going to throw up.

This room contained bodies stripped of flesh and bone. One corpse had no skin on its face and their eyes were bulging out. Others had faces twisted into expressions of horror. All dissected and desecrated and just wrong. The strong bleach and disinfectant did nothing to cover the smell. It took him back to the front line again; he'd once seen a guy step on a landmine. The result hadn't been pretty, but he'd looked better than these guys and that was saying something.

"Fuck," he ran his hand along the wall as he moved; stretching out as much as he could as he walked. The last thing he needed was his muscles to cease up when he needed to get out.

He stopped at one pod and couldn't help but stare in. There was the body of a newborn; it was human; it wasn't alien. It was just _different_.

These people. This world. They'd been wrong from the start.

If Sheppard had ever had a reason to blow the shit out of a place, it was this.

--

He couldn't help but cough as he moved through the chambers and he was still off balance, tripping over his own feet, forced to use the pods to keep balance and stumbling across new horrors as he moved.

There didn't seem to be many people manning the facility; he'd only seen one person so far and he'd managed to push himself up against the wall and lie in wait until they passed. There was no sense getting into a fight when he was unarmed. Sometimes the best tactic was to hide. McKay had that strategy down pat.

Turns out he spoke too soon. He turned a corner and spotted the man who had initially bought him to this place. He froze in place and held his hands up, waiting for the other man to make a move.

"Guess I shouldn't be sneaking around," he said lamely.

"Guess you shouldn't."

They stared at each other for a minute; Sheppard smiled, the other man scratched his cheek.

"Well……this is awkward." He balled his fists up.

"The Keeper won't be happy that you got out."

Sheppard looked around; he didn't have many options. He was going to have to go through this guy to get out. He was unarmed, had no back up and was still feeling the effects from the pod. He'd be lucky to stay standing.

The man started advancing on him and Sheppard backed up, "The Keeper won't be happy if you damage his –"

He was struck full on and didn't have enough time to brace himself against the impact. The man had move inhumanely fast and was pressing him into the ground, pinning his arms against the floor with a strength that rivalled Ronon's. Sheppard twisted and managed to break from his grasp, kicking his leg out and connecting with the guy's shin.

He barely flinched and just seemed to get _really_ pissed off. He reared back and bared his teeth. Pointy and glistening in the harsh light.

Sheppard managed to get up in time to be pushed against one of the pods – he could feel the vibrations of the force-field behind him, refusing to give.

"I'm taking you back," the man said and then his eyes went from black swirls to white.

Sheppard ripped his hand free and bought his elbow round in an arc to connect with his chin. It split open and the blood that started to pour freely was orange and caustic smelling. Whatever these things were, they weren't human, which meant Sheppard probably wouldn't have a problem killing them.

"What the hell?" Sheppard ducked the punch coming his way, only to have another one land in his stomach.

He struck out, putting all of his strength into kicking the guy's calf and Sheppard pushed him back and headed towards the exit.

He would have made it, if he hadn't recently been oxygen deprived, but black spots danced in his vision and his captor landed on him heavily, driving him down onto the cold white floor, slamming his face into it.

Sheppard saw the blood colouring the floor as he lifted his head, just before it was rammed back down again.

Things weren't exactly going to plan.

Something sharp landed in the back of his shoulder and he managed to get a glimpse in the reflective surface of one of the pods of the thing above him retracting spikes into his fingers.

"The Keeper won't let you leave," it repeated, close to his ear.

Sheppard struggled to move, he managed to release his right hand and twist it enough to touch something familiar and heavy in the things belt. The way his hand fit it, the weight…….he knew it was his 9.mil.

It got off him, allowed him to get back up and Sheppard couldn't help but stare into those cold, dead eyes.

"What are you?" he asked, watching his weapon, waiting for the moment he could retrieve it and sink a bullet into this things head.

"Unique." It told him.

Sheppard wiped at his nose and watched as blood smeared all over his forearm.

"I thought I was unique……"

"You are. That's why you have to stay here."

It was now or never. He ran as fast as he could, propelled his body weight into the alien and as they were falling to the ground he clasped his gun. They landed and tangled; the gun slipped from his hand and skittered across the floor.

"You've got to be kidding m-"

The thing grabbed him by the shoulders, squeezed the open wound on his back and threw him across the room, and then as it launched himself at him one last time, Sheppard heard the sound of blessed gunfire and watched as it dropped out of the air and landed dead on the floor.

--

McKay panicked. He panicked and then he fired on whoever it was that was attacking Sheppard. It was currently lying in the middle of the floor, orange blood seeping out of the wound in its back and Sheppard was slowly getting to his feet.

"Rodney?" he slurred.

He daren't move, because in the movies the dead body always got back up for one last fight. Sheppard was already moving over to it, like the victim _always_ did in movies, and was kicking it in the side with his boot. Any second now it would reach out and pull him to the floor.

Except, it didn't.

"You okay?" Sheppard asked as he retrieved his 9.mil.

McKay nodded and wondered how it was that Sheppard would always ask about everyone but himself.

"Uh……yeah."

Sheppard's nose was bleeding profusely and no amount of wiping or hand to nose action was going to stop it.

"You okay?"

"I've been better. What the hell happened?" he asked, gesturing to the pods.

"I disrupted the power flow to your pod," McKay explained, swallowing thickly, "It worked then?"

"Yeah," Sheppard went to pat him on the shoulder but lifted his arm and grimaced.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing….I'm fine. We should get out of here. Where's Teyla and Ronon?" He checked the magazine was full in his 9.mil and reloaded. Quick and practiced and so familiar.

"They're…….." McKay sighed, suddenly tired, "…they were captured too."

"What?" Sheppard looked exhausted, "Do you know where they are?"

"No I was running for my life at the time…I didn't see where they put them!"

"Okay, okay," Sheppard reached out with his other hand and leaned on him under the pretence he was offering him support, when really he could barely stand, "You did good."

"I need to know where they are…there's numbers above the pods……..then I can get them out."

"Okay, do you have another earpiece?"

McKay fished through the pockets of his pants and found what he was looking for. Encased in a plastic bag was a spare. Sheppard had made them carry the extra's as they always seemed to get stolen or lost on missions, either when they were captured or running for their lives.

Sheppard took it from him and placed it securely in his ear. "Help me with this guy," he said, indicating to the body on the floor.

"What?"

Sheppard tucked his gun into his waistband, "We can't just leave him here. Now help me."

"But what if he's alive?"

"He's dead."

"I shot him…I probably missed."

"Rodney, we haven't got all day. Arms or legs?"

"What?"

He didn't like the way Sheppard was apparently comfortable handling a corpse.

"_Arms_ or legs?"

"Arms……." And as Sheppard walked over to his side, "No, no, legs!"

As Sheppard bent over he noticed something glistening on his back, but he was distracted, "Hold on."

They hauled the body up and started to move him over to a space next to one of the pods. The body would be out of sight for a while.

Sheppard looked at the blood spot on the floor, "McKay, you're jacket."

"What?"

"Give me _your_ jacket."

He removed it, unsure of what Sheppard was going to do and then groaned when Sheppard started to mop the orange blood up. Something was burning; he realised his jacket seemed to be smoking on contact with the blood.

"I only have a finite amount of those and-"

Sheppard shot him an aggrieved look "_Can_ it McKay," and then before tossing it back to him he wiped his bloody nose on it. Sheppard walked over to him and passed it to him, "Hide it."

"Well I wasn't going to wear it."

"Funny."

"What is that-" he examined the holes in his jacket, "I can't believe you wiped your-"

"We've got to move quickly."

Oh right, impending death…….pods to open…Teyla, Ronon……

"I'll be……… downstairs," McKay said.

"It safe?"

"Contrary to popular belief Colonel, you can't be in two places at once."

Sheppard shot him a look and he read it and understood.

"I'll be fine. This place doesn't seem to have many staff. I didn't see anyone down there. I think the systems are usually pretty self sufficient. Plus…I don't think they're that bothered about me."

"Unless someone's figured out I got out and start poking around."

"Thanks for that. Just….be quick."

"I'll radio as soon as I've located them. Watch your back and if the shit hits the fan get out of here and bring back reinforcements. I mean it, don't wait."

McKay nodded and Sheppard finally let go of his shoulder again. He was balanced for the moment, but the drugs, the pod and that fight would eventually take their toll.


	5. Chapter 5

--

"You found them yet?"

"No Rodney," he continued through the chambers, jogging and waiting for the moment he spotted a familiar face.

"This place is amazing……..you know they have over three hundred different species here alone?"

"That's great Rodney…..look under the section for Satedan and Athosian."

"Very funny Colonel. It's not that simple."

"Didn't think it was."

He could tell that McKay was rolling his eyes at him and in another situation he would enjoy baiting him, but the sooner they got out, the sooner he could lock himself in his room and sleep.

"This is a complicated sub-routine……I'm being as fast as I can."

"I know……I just want you to be faster."

"Well you're welcome to come down here and try yourself."

"Fine…then you can come up here."

"Again……..funny."

"I'll contact you when I've found them."

The lights flickered overhead and suddenly dimmed and Sheppard stopped, bringing the gun up and waiting. There was the sound, like generators coming on, and then each pod lit up with a creepy blue light in succession.

"Just what I need…" he whispered and moved on.

--

"Have you found them yet?"

There was silence on the other end and McKay was beginning to get twitchy. He hadn't heard from Sheppard in a while. He hadn't looked all that healthy earlier and he was beginning to regret not insisting further that he at least sit down for a while. He could have collapsed up there, or been captured or be-

"Sheppard?"

Silence.

"Sheppard? Are you in a pod again?"

The derisive snort from the other end made him smile.

"Rodney…no I haven't found them yet."

"I wish you'd hurry up because as much as I love sitting around in this creepy basement……...i would like to go home at some point today."

"I'm not sight seeing Rodney. This place is huge…..I'm going as fast as I can."

"I'm sure you are Colonel……. Understandably, I still want you to hurry the f-"

"Rodney…I'm….they're here. I've found them."

"Really?" McKay sat up and waited, hands hovering over his keyboard, "What are the numbers?"

"It's more symbols than numbers."

"Symbols? You had a number. "

"Well I'm telling you Rodney. These are…" he coughed and McKay tensed because it hadn't sounded good.

"Are you okay?"

It was just like Sheppard to glance over a little fact like he might be dying, so predictably he ignored the question, "These are symbols."

"Okay…well, describe them to me."

Sheppard sighed on the other end, "I've got a circle with a triangle type thing on top and an upside down chair with a hat above it."

"What?" Sheppard's descriptive skills weren't helping him at all, "That's-"

"_That's_ what I'm _seeing_ Rodney." Another wet hacking coughing, "There are no numbers……just-"

"Okay, a triangle circle and a chair hat………give me a minute…..I'll see what I can do."

"Hurry up bec-" and then the line went dead.

--

Sheppard slid across the floor and his back connected with the wall; hard and unforgiving. He groaned, because honestly, he'd had enough of being beat today, held up his gun and fired two shots into the Curators chest. With disturbing speed, it ducked and scuttled across the floor towards him, an evil grin painted across his features.

"What the hell?"

He fired again and the Curator pressed himself into the stark white floor, long fingernails extended and clipping across the floor as he moved.

"Nobody leaves here," he said, voice no longer sounding in anyway human.

Sheppard braced his back on the wall and stood slowly, his every move matched, "I'm leaving. We're all leaving," he said gesturing towards the pods containing his team-mates.

The Curator straightened up; face cracking, the human façade slipping, "You are-"

Sheppard raised his weapon, finger dangerously close to pressing the trigger, "leaving?" he started edging away, "You realise I'm going to level this place."

"We will build new facilities to hold our specimens."

"_Sheppard?"_

Sheppard cleared his throat, "Kind of busy Rodney."

"_With what?"_

"With-" the Curator was running at him, strong and fluid and he connected before Sheppard could finish his sentence, falling onto his back and suddenly pressed into the floor.

"_Sheppard!"_

"I'm busy!" he managed to get leverage and fire upwards, but the Curator rolled away and arched his back like a feral cat.

"Dammit!"

"_I've managed to break the code! Their pods should be disengaging any second now."_

"Good I could use the back-up!" his head rocked back as the Curator smashed him in the chin, and then followed it up with a slash across his tac vest. The long nails didn't penetrate the skin but he could feel the cool air reaching his skin; too close.

"_Why? What's happening?"_

Sheppard fired, once, twice, hitting the Curator square in the chest and he reacted as if somebody had simply breathed on him. He didn't have much ammo left and he couldn't afford to waste the only advantage he had, so instead he rushed forwards, lodging his shoulder in the Curators sternum and driving him to the ground.

The orange blood that was dripping from the Curator's chest, got on his skin and burned. He ignored the discomfort, pushed the barrel of his gun into one of the wounds and pressed the trigger a few times. The Curator bucked under him, made a horrendous keening noise, and then tossed him aside as if he didn't weigh a thing.

"_Sheppard?"_

There was the sound of something dropping to the floor and Sheppard glanced briefly to see Teyla and Ronon lying at the foot of their pods and gasping.

He remembered that feeling. Like you had just died and he knew it would take them a while to get back into the game. For the time being he was on his own.

He backtracked, activated his earpiece and shouted, "Rodney! Get out of here. Wait outside and stay hidden!"

"_You want me to leave?"_

"Ronon and Teyla are free. They're fine. I'm fine, just go!"

"_You're not fine!"_

"Rodney!" McKay would understand the intonation.

"_Fine, I'm going…just hurry up and ……you know…….stay alive."_

"You see this as victory!" the Curator snapped, "But you will be returned to your rightful place."

"Yeah not here!" Sheppard said, waiting and watching.

The Curator was racing forwards at him and Sheppard fired until he heard the dissatisfying click of an expended magazine. Then he was on the ground and gasping for breath as its long fingers were wrapping around his neck.

"You will not leave," it repeated, "You will _not_ leave!"

He would have died in that moment, but then Ronon was appearing at it's back, putting the thing in a head-lock and snapping it's neck to the side. The Curator's eyes, completely white, rolled into the back of it's head and slumped onto the ground.

Sheppard lay where he was, breathing in and out in quick succession, "Nice timing."

Ronon, who looked pale and disoriented still, extended his hand and pulled Sheppard up. He patted him on the shoulder, and when Sheppard made a yelping noise, he was turning him around and checking the wound on his back.

"What's that"

Sheppard shrugged him off, because they didn't have time, and he didn't want to stay here any longer than necessary.

"John?" Teyla was getting to her feet, "Are you okay?"

"Are you?"

"I feel extremely weak but my strength shall return," she gave her pod a critical look, "I thought I was dead."

"So did I.." Sheppard said looking down at the Curator's body.

"What happened to your back?" Ronon asked, "Look's nasty."

He nodded and wanted to say that it felt it too, but instead he shot Ronon a dark look and said, "Get out of here."

"What are you doing?"

Sheppard reached into his pocket and retrieved his C4, "I'm making sure this never happens again."

"I'll stay," Ronon said, sagging a little, "You'll need back up."

"No," Sheppard nodded at the door, "Go find Rodney. He's out there on his own. I'll be right behind you."

Ronon looked torn. He never had been good at agreeing with him, but he always followed his orders, even if it wasn't without question.

"You better be," Ronon told him and then gripped Teyla around the waist and walked her out of the complex.

Sheppard stayed where he was standing for a while longer than he intended. He was suddenly tired and all of the little aches he had been ignoring seemed to make themselves known. He scrubbed at his face and shuffled across to one of the pods, smashing the wad of C4 against it and pushing in a blasting cap. He'd have to remote detonate it.

He tentatively arched his back and then sucked in a deep breath. He wasn't going to even think about the state of his back until he was home.

Once he was satisfied that everything was in it's place and the connections wouldn't fail and the timer had been set for ten minutes, he started towards to the door and that's when he noticed it.

The Curator had gone.

"You have got to be kidding me," he said whispering the last part.

"Where are you?" he whispered, clutching his empty gun in his hand.

He looked up at the ceiling and scanned the room and was on his third rotation when he got his answer.

He heard him before he saw him. The sound hurt his ears; it was like screeching tyres on asphalt and every nerve ending in his body pulsed in time. The Curator pushed those long talon into his shoulder again and Sheppard yelled.

The pain was unlike anything he'd felt before as the Curator twisted and hit a nerve. The gun he had been holding slipped from his hand as the pain radiated downwards.

"It takes more than _that_ to kill me," it said.

Sheppard bit down on his lip, hands balled into useless fists.

He had one last chance and it was going to hurt like a sonofabitch; still impaled and connected to the Curator he lifted his leg and braced it on the pod in front of him.

And then, he pushed as hard as he could. They both staggered backwards and when the Curator hit something solid, Sheppard pulled forward and let out a howl of pain. His fall wasn't the least bit controlled and he tumbled to his knees and then the floor in one ungainly move.

He heard something swish and rolled onto his back to see the Curator had become stuck in one of the pods. The force field had come down in front of him and he was hammering against it and screeching again.

"Hell of a specimen," he said, staring at the Curator from the floor and now seeing nothing human in it.

"_Sheppard!"_

McKay's voice sounded stressed.

He reached up to his earpiece and slapped his numb hand against it to activate it, "I'm coming," he said, aware that he wasn't moving.

"_Are you?"_ The voice was more urgent now.

"Just taking a minute," he told him, knowing that he didn't have the luxury but struggling with the concept of actually moving and getting up.

"_Oh well, why don't you just take a break……have a picnic! Colonel-"_

His eyelids were so heavy; he just wanted to sleep.

"_John!"_

Teyla's voice was rousing him up and it sounded urgent, almost as if he hadn't answered in a while.

"I'm up," he said and wincing and swearing he slapped his hands down onto the floor.

He knew that the timer was already counting down and struggled to grasp back onto consciousness. They would never forgive themselves if he didn't get out in time. They'd forgo blaming him and tell themselves that they should have stayed or gone into help him.

That guilt was reserved for him alone.

So, he forced himself up to his feet, swayed and staggered and gave the screaming Curator a look before running as fast as he could to get out.

--

McKay was shouting at Ronon, demanding to know where Sheppard was when he came stumbling out of the facility. Where he'd got his energy reserves from was a mystery because he was charging at them.

"Run!" he called out as McKay started towards him, "Not to me! Away……"

It took a moment for McKay to understand what he meant, but then Ronon and Teyla were hauling him backwards and Sheppard was catching up to them.

They'd taken all but five long strides when the building behind them exploded. The force propelled them to the ground and McKay instinctively covered his head with his hands. Windows and metal screeched and showered down and the ground vibrated angrily. When McKay peeked through his fingers, the dark sky had turned orange.

They all lay there, the four of them on their stomachs, breathing dirt and exhausted, listening to the crackle of the fire and the shriek of metal as the facility crumbled in on itself.

"That was too close," Sheppard mumbled into his arm, "Sorry, thought I had more time."

"Well, at least it must have looked dramatic," McKay said and despite himself he smiled.

Ronon was laughing too because they had had escaped and the facility was well and truly destroyed.

"I'm going to sleep for a week after this," McKay told his team-mates.

"Me too," Sheppard said.

"I believe we all deserve a break," Teyla got up to her knees and paled when she noticed Sheppard's back.

McKay was about to ask what all the fuss was about when he saw it. Sheppard's tac vest was torn open and he could already see that the fabric was wet with blood.

"We should-" he started.

There was a sound like no other. A loud wailing, not one person but a collective sound. It carried through the night eerily.

McKay pushed himself up and moved to look down at the hill.

"Oh my god!" he said turning to the others, "They're-"

Ronon had got up now and was joining him, looking down at the dark shadows that moved up towards them, white eyed and making a horrendous noise.

"That's not good!" he said pointing.

"We need to get out of here!" Ronon said, moving to where Sheppard still hadn't moved.

"What do we do?" McKay asked. "Sheppard!?"

Teyla was shaking him and trying to get him up. Her softly approach wasn't working. "John?"

Ronon reached down and flicked Sheppard's nose, "Get up!"

Sheppard moved then, made a groaning noise and looked up, mud smearing his cheek and mingling with all the blood, "What?"

"We've got company."

"Thought it was too good to be true," he replied.

Ronon helped him up, careful not to touch his back and careful not to make Sheppard feel completely helpless, because they all knew he hated that more than paperwork and more than orders.

"Let's get the hell out of here," Sheppard told them and then they ran.

--

McKay entered the infirmary feeling like he'd pulled an all-nighter. He couldn't think of a time when he had been more exhausted and for once in the history of their missions he hadn't even been captured.

He scanned the beds next to Sheppard's where he was getting his shoulder bandaged, and wondered where Teyla and Ronon had gone too.

"They were released an hour ago," Sheppard told him, wincing when the nurse pulled a little too tightly.

McKay came to stand beside him and sensing the need for privacy, the nurse made her excuses and left. Sheppard sat on the edge of the bed, unable to lie back because of his impressive wounds.

"Tell me you wiped that address off the system?"

"It was the first thing I did when we got back while you were passing out on the gateroom floor."

Sheppard scowled, "I was not passing out. I was resting."

"Right."

Sheppard tried to square his shoulders, obviously testing mobility of his shoulder and then he was staring at McKay.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"I know there's something Colonel."

"I was just, "Sheppard licked his lips, "I was just wondering how you managed to avoid getting captured….that's all."

McKay had known this was coming, only he'd hoped he'd have enough time to come up with a suitable, believable, excuse, "Well, I used my smarts, something _you_ and the rest of the team neglected to do today."

"Right," he smiled a little, "Because, I was beat pretty bad back there and for them to get Ronon and Teyla…." He paused, "I'm impressed."

"Yes well………it's a shame they didn't manage to catch me-"

"Because you _escaped_?" Sheppard narrowed his eyes and gave him a look that told him he didn't believe him.

"Exactly……." He felt the blush creep up his neck, "I mean they missed an opportunity to get their hands on a one of a kind genius. I hardly think they realise how valuable, a man of my stature-"

"Of course," Sheppard looked disinterested now.

"- could have been to their collection. I would have drawn in a crowd I can tell you."

Sheppard stopped fiddling with his bandage long enough to look up, "So you _wanted_ to get captured?"

"No, of course not! I'm just _saying_ that they missed out, that's all. I'm, what they might call, Unique," and he added extra stress to the last word.

"That you are Rodney. You did good today."

"I know," McKay told him, "Anyway, as much as I enjoy sitting around here with you and waiting for you to faint again, I'm going to go down to my lab and get to work……genius remember?," he said of way of explanation, knowing he was pushing the point a little too much now to look blasé about it.

"I'm not going to pass out," Sheppard said narrowing his eyes and looking a little peaky all of a sudden, "And I didn't _faint_ earlier!"

McKay headed towards the door.

"I'm sure you didn't Colonel, after all……. that would make you like every other human!"

Sheppard went to lie back and remembered he couldn't and winced, "You're just jealous because I'm unique."

McKay smiled, "Yes you faint in a unique way. Now get some sleep."

Sheppard had already rolled onto his side when he looked back and was attempting to get comfortable, "Hey Rodney!"

"What?"

"You didn't captured today. That's pretty cool."

McKay waved him goodnight and left. Out in the corridor he snapped his fingers.

He really hadn't been captured that day.

"Ha!" he pushed off from the wall with a spring in his step.

That certainly was _Unique_.

The End.

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